Event Title
"You Remember the Harbor" - Stylistic Integrity and Lyrical Resonance in Earnest Hemingway's In Our Time
Location
Exhibition Hall, DeVos Center
Description
Background and Purpose: Scholarly debate surrounding Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time (1925) centers largely on the view of this work as a collection of stylistically interwoven but loosely organized “miniatures” and short stories that demonstrate the promising talent of a young member of the “Lost Generation,” writers whose literary innovations mirrored the monumental shifts in cultural perceptions following World War I. This analysis asserts the structural integrity of Hemingway’s text and illustrates that, while In Our Time demonstrates modern literary influences, the work is stylistically, structurally, and thematically unique, set apart from work by other modernists and even Hemingway’s own later efforts. Subjects, Methods, and Materials: A close analysis of In Our Time as it compares to the styles and methods of major modern writers, particularly T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. Other significant voices of the period, as well as and the findings of noted Hemingway scholars, Philip Young and Carlos Baker, and contemporary critics are also considered. Conclusions: In Our Time blends modern poetic techniques of fragmentation, compression, and lyricism with the narrative shifts and non-linear progression associated with modern prose. Unified by a dynamic emotive force, Hemingway’s text is an imagistic, densely cinematic work, structurally complex yet unified, evocative, resonant – and unique. In Our Time presents an uncompromising view of humanity’s struggle to find meaning in a fractured world, and the path it suggests in doing so– a focus on the inner strength of the individual to forge his own way– is pragmatic and distinctively American.
"You Remember the Harbor" - Stylistic Integrity and Lyrical Resonance in Earnest Hemingway's In Our Time
Exhibition Hall, DeVos Center
Background and Purpose: Scholarly debate surrounding Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time (1925) centers largely on the view of this work as a collection of stylistically interwoven but loosely organized “miniatures” and short stories that demonstrate the promising talent of a young member of the “Lost Generation,” writers whose literary innovations mirrored the monumental shifts in cultural perceptions following World War I. This analysis asserts the structural integrity of Hemingway’s text and illustrates that, while In Our Time demonstrates modern literary influences, the work is stylistically, structurally, and thematically unique, set apart from work by other modernists and even Hemingway’s own later efforts. Subjects, Methods, and Materials: A close analysis of In Our Time as it compares to the styles and methods of major modern writers, particularly T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. Other significant voices of the period, as well as and the findings of noted Hemingway scholars, Philip Young and Carlos Baker, and contemporary critics are also considered. Conclusions: In Our Time blends modern poetic techniques of fragmentation, compression, and lyricism with the narrative shifts and non-linear progression associated with modern prose. Unified by a dynamic emotive force, Hemingway’s text is an imagistic, densely cinematic work, structurally complex yet unified, evocative, resonant – and unique. In Our Time presents an uncompromising view of humanity’s struggle to find meaning in a fractured world, and the path it suggests in doing so– a focus on the inner strength of the individual to forge his own way– is pragmatic and distinctively American.